Sunday, August 12, 2007

yesterday's newspaper were full of the news regarding Regional Airlines, bt, none of them gave an insight wat is the complete scenario for that...i thought to do sm research & came up with the following-->

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has introduced a separate category of permit - Scheduled Operator Permit for Regional Airlines.

As per the notification of the Ministry: A separate category of operator permit will be introduced i.e., Scheduled Operator Permit for Regional Airlines. This will be applicable for both fixed wing and helicopter operators. These airlines would be called as Regional Airlines.

To qualify for the permit, the applicant Company should undertake operations primarily between airports of any of the four regions – North, South, West and East/North East. The airports in the region would be as defined by the Airports Authority of India for their respective regions.

On grounds of operational and commercial exigencies, the companies would be allowed to operate flights from airports in their designated region to all airports in any other region except the metro airports of the other region. The Regional Airlines would not be permitted to operate on Category-I routes of the Route Dispersal Guidelines.

For the purpose of this policy, the metro airports would be Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

In view of the fact that the southern region has three metro airports, the regional airlines of the southern region would be allowed to operate between the designated metros of the southern region.

The Company would have to acquire at least three aircrafts within one year and at the end of two years, the Company would be required to operate with minimum five aircrafts.

The paid up capital of the Company would be:

For aircrafts of and above 40,000 kg. take off mass upto 3 aircrafts – Rs. 30 crore. Addition of each aircraft would require additional Rs. 10 crore subject to a maximum of Rs. 50 crore after which no further enhancement of equity would be required.

Airlines with take off mass below 40,000 kg. up to 3 aircraft – Rs. 12 crore. For further two aircrafts total paid up capital of Rs. 20 crore will be required.

Other conditions/requirements prescribed for Scheduled Operator permit would remain the same for Regional Airlines.
The matter regarding Regional Airlines was being considered in view of the fact that there was a need to expand air services to the Tier II and Tier III cities to meet the unfulfilled demand for the same which the existing operators are unable to cater to for various reasons. It was felt that a separate category of Airlines mainly with smaller aircrafts might be encouraged to fill this gap and also contribute to the overall growth in the sector. In this connection it may be clarified that the existing provisions for Scheduled Operator Permit would also remain in force and such permit for unrestricted operation of scheduled flights throughout the country would be considered only for those companies which have proven financial strength and organizational capabilities to successfully manage such complex operations.